The present invention relates to a technique for managing the configuration of a data area of a storage system, and more particularly to a technique for detecting a discrepancy in the range of a data area set by a management computer, and in the range of the data management area set inside a storage system.
In computer systems operated and managed by corporations and the like, computer systems have been developed that use large-capacity storage and multiple storage devices connected by a Storage Area Network (SAN) where the multiple storage devices are generally connected by a fibre channel and Internet Protocol (IP)dedicated for use with storage. SANs have caused an increase of computer systems in which multiple computers share voluminous data dispersed across the storage devices. Furthermore, since an objective of manufacturers has been to improve the utility of storage devices and the like, storage performance is being improved. In a computer system such as described above, an increase in the data to be managed complicates the operation and management of storage and increases costs. Therefore, a technique has been proposed for partitioning the management range of the user who manages both the storage devices in a storage network and the large-capacity storage component of the system (e.g., JP 2003-330622 A, Official Gazette (corresponds to U.S. application No. 2003/0172069 A1).
In U.S. application No. 2003/0172069 A1, the volume accessible to a user or a host is assigned, and a right to manage the volume is set. This technique enables clarification of the user's management range for each volume. A known technique improves access performance to the volume and increases the volume's usage efficiency, thereby reconstructing the storage system (e.g., JP 2001-184175 A, Official Gazette). This technique enables efficient handling of volumes in large-capacity storage without waste.
The above-mentioned conventional techniques have the following problems. The conventional technique in JP 2001-184175 A does not discuss rights with respect to the volume in storage. In large-capacity storage, many cases where the volumes that can be used are determined separately for each department or business service. Therefore, when reconstructing the volume to improve system performance, with the technique of JP 2001-184175, the rights to the volume are not managed, and concern arises that without the permission of the volume manager the configuration of the volume will be improperly changed. Therefore, a system is needed which manages the rights to the volume.
The conventional technique in JP 2003-330622 A can sometimes resolve the foregoing problem. However, the user's management range is set on the computer that manages the storage system. Therefore, if this management computer can be bypassed to set the storage system ranges, the management range set on the management computer becomes invalid. Accordingly, even within the storage system access to the volume must be restricted. In order to restrict overall access to the storage system, it is also necessary to restrict access on the management computer. Thus, the access restrictions configured on the management computer, and the access restrictions configured within the storage system, must match each other, which can be a problem.
When storage constitutes a RAID structure, multiple volumes generally belong to a single RAID structure. Therefore, if the volumes belonging to the same RAID structure are partitioned between two users, when a disk in the RAID structure fails, failure information must be sent to both users, and ultimately the volumes belonging to the same RAID structure must be managed by both users. Therefore, clearer management ranges can generally be achieved by dividing user management rights for each RAID structure unit.
As mentioned above, there is a tendency restrict access by each logical volume unit on the management computer, and by each RAID structure rather than by each volume in the storage system. In this case, the management range on the management computer, and the management range in the storage system, do not match. For example, when the storage system has two RAID disk groups, such as one volume of a RAID 1 structure and one volume of a RAID 5 structure, if a volume group belonging to a volume in the RAID 1 structure and a volume belonging to the RAID 5 structure are given to a user by the management computer, and another volume in the RAID 5 structure is given to another user, then the management ranges of the users are clearly divided when seen in terms of volume units. However, in terms of RAID structure units, two users manage the RAID of the RAID 5 structure, creating a state where the management range is unclear.